“No one really knows who first held a beautifully shaped natural stone in his hand and saw in its shape a resemblance to a miniature mountain, waterfall or small animal. But we do know that as far back as the reign of the Empress Suiko in Japan (AD 593‐628) Chinese visitors presented stones of rare shapes set on individual trays to their hosts.” NYT 1976

Rocks! Personally I love them but then I am attempting to create a Japanese style garden and rocks (often referred to as stones when removed from their environment) are an essential component. And today is International Rock Day – so we are going to make them a subject of our poems. And perhaps not surprisingly they feature in many renowned published poems as here in this extract from Kathleen Raine’s “Rock”

And in this final stanza Herbert Morris vividly conjures “The Rocks”

And last but not least, “Tai Lake Rocks” moved Bai Juyi to write poetry, translated thus:

“Emerald green mists and several autumn colors
Large waves left ten thousand ancient marks
Scraped and whittled to produce flat shards of green jade
If sliced into pieces, they become like the offspring of bluish-green clouds.

Wind erosion leads to their holes and crags
Moss penetrates or covers to guard their openings
Specific younger versions of several mountain peaks
Are like the grandchildren of Mt. Hua.“

So as I intimated at the beginning, not only are we going to be writing about rocks but also to complement the theme, we are taking one of the Japanese forms of poetry
–The Imayo* – and this is its structure:

• 4 lines (8 lines permissible)
• 12 syllables per line divided as7/5
• make a pause space between the 7 and 5 syllables
• use comma, caesura or kireji (cutting word) as the pause
• no rhymes
• no meter
• no end of line pauses – the whole should flow together as though one long sentence

Please Note: Your subject must be the noun ‘rock/rocks’ (can be interchanged with stone)

It is the geological mineral NOT the music!
It is a literal poem so do not use symbolism, allegory etc

Suggestions: Write about a favourite rock on a beach or moor or mountain. Maybe its the menhirs of Stonehenge or other such monoliths. Maybe its a treasured stone you picked up somewhere. If at a loss, use a photo or painting and write it as ekphrastic – and yes you might like to illustrate your poem with an image.

*See The Imayo poem type

When you have published your poem according to the guidelines above, add it to the Mr Linky below and go visiting other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.